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gather you rosebuds while you maynot sure if you're being facetious or not, tsuwm, but this makes sense.... "gather you" appears to be an anastrophic imperative, similar to a french construction like gather-you. i don't believe the intended meaning of the line was to tell us to hoard or gather the rosebuds that already belong to us, as would be the translation of "gather your rosebuds", but rather a suggestion that we go out and gather these metaphorical rosebuds from outside sources. hrm, i'm having trouble expressing my thoughts here, but it makes perfect sense to me  but anyhow... are you saying, tsuwm, that if "gather-you rosebuds while you may" is indeed correct, then the insertion of the apostrophes is * incorrect? sounds right to me. *: [cross-threading] note in this case we use *is* rather than are, because the adjectival phrase "is incorrect" modifies "insertion", not apostrophe.[/cross-threading] 
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Joined: Mar 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Here's the poem, courtesy of the Poetry Archives. And all the other book anthologies I have offer the same print. I have always seen "Gather ye rose-buds while ye may," but notice that Herrick uses both forms, ye and you, in the final stanza.
TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME
by Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may:
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the Sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.
That age is best, which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times, still succeed the former.
--Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.
AN EPITAPH UPON A VIRGIN
Here a solemn fast we keep,
While all beauty lies asleep;
Hush'd be all things, no noise here
But the toning of a tear;
Or a sigh of such as bring
Cowslips for her covering.
Robert Herrick
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old hand
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old hand
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THE MOST AUDACIOUS EXULTATION IN THE IMPERATIVE EVER SPOKEN BY MORTAL MAN.
Zarathustra had meditated in the cave for forty day and forty nights with only his eagle, his serpent, and his rod for company. He grew weary of his new found wisdom. He needed outstretched hands to receive it. So on the fortieth day the walked to the entrance of the cave and spoke to the early morning Sun.
He said...
AWAKE! THOU GREAT STAR. WHAT WOULD THY GLORY BE IF THOU HAD NOT THOSE UPON WHOM THOU SHINIETH!
Nietzsche, Song of Zarathustra. IDNLIU.
Milum.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The glorious lamp of heaven, the Sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run
All those thes in there, I withdraw my contention that ye was the.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Gather ye mileage from UCLA
While money's still a-flowin'.
And business lunch reimbursement to-day;
To-morrow you'll be goin'.
.....-- Jim Harrick
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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It's like the carol, "God rest ye merry gentlemen" .. which, when correctly sung is "God rest ye merry (pause) gentlemen."
Obvious that ye is you - to me at least, how 'bout ye?
Or are ye of little faith in my deduction?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
gather you rosebuds while you may
not sure if you're being facetious or not, tsuwm...
not
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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God rest ye merry gentlemen
I'll go along with the pause between merry and gentlemen but I'm sticking with the on this one. Rest you merry? Does that mean something?
God rest the merry, gentlemen.
God grant rest to those who are merry.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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God rest ye merry gentlemen, / Let nothing you dismay.Suggesting that ye = you. Would be most odd if ye = the. I'll go along with the pause between merry and gentlemen.Nah. Put the pause before merry, not after. Thus, merry gentlemen is an appostive phrase for and following ye/you. Edit: a google search for "God rest ye merry gentlemen" reveals that it appears usually with no comma at all; fairly often with a comma after merry (wow's reading); and once in a while with a comma before merry (my reading): http://www.pdinfo.com/list/chrissng.htm[/.url], citing 1827
[url]www.geocities.com/stephen_crane_us/godrest.html (story by Stephan Crane, 1899) Occcasionally "you", but never "the", is substitituted for "ye". http://ww.highlandpublishing.com/Highland_Records_%C4/Albums%20%C4/Highland_Records_204.html: Apparently the words were written first, their earliest appearance in the Roxburghe Collection III, about 1770. The original melody can be found in Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern, by William Sandys (London, 1833). The melody that we know, along with the current words, appear in Facetiae and Miscellanies, by William Hone, published in London in 1827. As James Fuld points out, the title can be interpreted to mean "God keep you, merry gentlemen" or "God keep you merry, gentlemen."
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"gather you" appears to be an anastrophic imperative, similar to a french construction like gather-you. i don't believe the intended meaning of the line was to tell us to hoard or gather the rosebuds that already belong to us, as would be the translation of "gather your rosebuds", but rather a suggestion that we go out and gather these metaphorical rosebuds from outside sources. hrm, i'm having trouble expressing my thoughts here, but it makes perfect sense to me
and to me, cara. But I also think it’s even more elaborate than you allow, tsuwm. Herrick was using a deliberate pun in his use of ‘may’: both the transitive verb of permissive ‘may’, and the intransitive verb of ‘to may’, which meant gathering flowers and woodland garlands for the may ceremonies (which I think was, er, rooted in early pagan celebration of the conquest of winter – the English tradition includes the May Queen, the Maypole, and the Mayfair which gave its name to a region of London). There was probably also a mildly scabrous allusion to 'gathering the buds' of ‘may’ which was also a synonym for maid or the virgin of the addressees of its anastrophic form…. back to fertility rites!
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